March 5, 2008
SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State Track and Field Weekly Release in PDF Format
Looking at the Week
San Diego State opens its 2008 outdoor track and field season this Saturday, March 8, at the San Diego City Championships in La Jolla, Calif.
The one-day event is set to commence at noon PT on the campus of UC San Diego and will feature collegiate track squads from around San Diego County.
Next week, the Aztecs will play host to the 30th annual Aztec Track and Field Classic at SDSU Sports Deck beginning on March 14.
Other Aztecs who provisionally qualified for nationals during the indoor season may be on their way to Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA Championships the same weekend. Their fates will be known at a later time.
Aztecs Earn All-MWC Honors
Karoline Koehler, Stephanie Bagan and Kristin Olafsdottir were named to the all-Mountain West Conference indoor track and field teams after the Aztecs finished in fourth place at the conference meet. All-conference selections are awarded to the top three finishers in each event at the Championships.
Koehler earned all-MWC accolades after finishing second place in the 60-meter dash and the triple jump and in third in the long jump. The senior matched her personal best in the 60 with a time of 7.53 seconds and then went on to establish a new school record and NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 43 feet, 5.00 inches in the triple jump. A day earlier in the long jump, Koehler leaped another NCAA provisional qualifying distance of 20-3.00 to set an SDSU indoor record. At the end of the meet, Koehler was awarded the High Point Award after she racked up 28 points in four championship events.
Bagan defended her pole vault title after she cleared 13-8.50, to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Her personal-record vault was two inches better than the second-place finisher, was 3.25 inches better than her 2007 championship clearance, ranked as the second-best in MWC championship history and was the fourth-best effort in the nation.
Olafsdottir, meanwhile, was named to the all-league squad after she finished third in the pentathlon with an NCAA provisional qualifying total of 3,777 points. The junior logged four season bests beginning with the 60-meter hurdles (8.75). Later, Olafsdottir threw 35-9.50 in the shot put, recorded a long jump of 18-0.25 and finished the competition with a time of 2:21.47 in the 800-meter run.
Records Broken
At the MWC Championships, three school records were broken. As mentioned before, Karoline Koehler set new records in the long jump and triple Jump, but the third record came from an event that SDSU has not had much success in recently.
On the second day of the Championships, Andrea Martinez set the program record in the weight throw with a toss of 54-8.25. Not only did her performance set a new standard of excellence, it marked the first time in the nine-year history of the MWC that an SDSU athlete scored in the event and was the first time an Aztec had earned points in a throwing competition since Candace Hill finished fourth at conference in the shot put in 2004.
Among the Nation's Elite
Following strong performances at the MWC meet, a few Aztecs improved their standing in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division I Rankings released March 5.
Stephanie Bagan was the biggest gainer this week as she went from unranked to fifth in the nation in the pole vault after winning the MWC title for a second straight season.
Similar to Bagan, Karoline Koehler was a new entry on the long jump list as she made her debut at No. 33, while moving up 16 spots to No. 12 on the triple jump rankings.
Decontee Kaye can also be found on both jump charts as she rose three notches to No. 22 in the triple jump and finds herself at No. 36 among all DI long jumpers.
Freshman Impact
SDSU's freshman class made its presence felt in its first MWC meet as three of the rookies found themselves in the middle of a hotly contested chase for the team title on the final day.
Jessika Hornsby and Alicia King both competed in the finals of the 200-meter dash and both walked away with personal records. Hornsby set a new PR with a time of 24.71, good for sixth, while King matched her PR with a clocking of 24.87 (8th). King also ran in the finals of the 60 and logged an eighth-place time of 7.69.
The third member of the group, Kyanna Thomas, was the lone Aztec in the 400 and she finished in fifth with a time of 57.36, just .01 second shot of matching her PR.
Thomas and Hornsby also ran a leg of the fourth-place earning 4x440 relay team (3:51.35).
Last Year at the San Diego City Championships
SDSU captured the San Diego City Championships title after earning 218 points, ahead of UCSD (203.5), Point Loma Nazarene (122.5) and CS San Marcos (80). In all, the Aztecs won eight events on the day.